House, Senate fail to pass border bills

By Kevin Diaz, Washington Bureau

July 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — Failing to strike a bargain on the Texas border crisis, House Republicans fell into disarray Thursday as they postponed a five-week break with no answer for the surge of illegal immigration that has brought tens of thousands of children from Central American to the Rio Grande Valley.

In the center of the political drama was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who led a bloc of tea party Republicans to derail a $659 million plan put forward by House GOP leaders.

Hours later, a separate $2.7 billion border bill was blocked by a procedural vote in the Senate, leaving President Barack Obama's border initiative in shambles.

With a divided GOP caucus, pro-immigrant street protests outside the White House and finger-pointing on Capitol Hill, the impasse leaves unclear how the administration will handle the rising costs of the humanitarian crisis brewing on the Mexican border.

House GOP leaders said they would meet with their caucus Friday morning to chart a way forward. But further action in the Senate seemed uncertain.

With 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican budgetary point of order, Democratic leaders were able to muster only 50.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, issued a statement saying Congress should stay in Washington until the “job is completed.”

Politically, the Republican uprising in the House was an embarrassing setback for Speaker John Boehner and his new leadership team, who hoped to deliver a GOP solution to a border crunch that has sparked a nationwide debate over immigration in the run-up to the November midterm elections.

Apparently short of votes, Boehner was forced to abruptly table a stopgap measure to provide law enforcement and humanitarian assistance through September and make it easier to deport children from Central America.

The Senate plan still was short of the $3.7 billion requested by Obama, but it would have enabled Democrats to portray their Republican foes as an obstructionist force in the face of a humanitarian emergency.

Republicans, who largely blame the crisis on lax border enforcement by the Obama administration, said the Democratic plan merely would throw money at the problem without securing the border and changing laws that have contributed to long backlogs in immigration courts.

With an impasse over money, and no agreement in sight on how to handle the influx of children headed for immigration courts, neither bill had much chance of passage before the August recess that had been scheduled to begin today.

The House bill also faced a White House veto threat over provisions that Democrats said would weaken legal protections for children from Central America.

Rather than reach an accord, it appeared early Thursday that Republicans and Democrats would be satisfied to pass separate bills and leave town to rally their own supporters.

Cruz had other ideas. Over beers, pizza, and Dr Pepper, Cruz met in his office Wednesday night with about a dozen House Republicans to talk strategy.

He urged them to hold out for a bill that included his last-ditch plan to restart deportations of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children.

Calling it “amnesty,” Cruz argued that a 2012 Obama edict suspending such deportations contributed to the influx of undocumented minors on the southern border.

The Tea Party Patriots also issued an “action alert” against the House GOP bill, prompting a backlash that was felt on Capitol phone lines.